Memories
by GingerDixie
Summary: 700 years ago, humans left a tainted Earth for a tumultuous life in space. Today, along with their saviors Wall-E and EVE, live a new life on a new Earth. But when incidents of the past finally catch up to them, it spells trouble...especially for EVE.
1. Prologue and The Robot Appraisal

**That's right, people...Memories is back for good! I appreciate those of you who had critiqued and commented on Memories before I decided to go and rewrite it for the second...and third...time in a row, and I heartily give my thanks to everyone who has supported me throughout the years. I want to take this opportunity to give a special thanks to my friend and editor, gothicorca1895, who without her help, I would have simply just pulled this story. **

**This is the same Memories that you all know...but there are several twists in this new plotline. I won't reveal them yet...you'll have to figure it out all on your own~**

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**Memories**

**Prologue**

_The human mind is a complicated place._

_It is a realm never lit by the light of modern knowledge; a dark, dangerous corridor riddled with dead ends, unending turns, and unmarked tangents. As often as we discover the solution to one of the mind's puzzling mysteries, hundreds of other erratic behaviors open up in its stead, snatching away our only sense of security. There seems to be no such thing as a complete understanding of human ethics and morals. _

_A robot's thinking is much clearer. The corruptibility of the mind and the many places we have yet to find in it's labyrinth leave too much to risk on the basis of caring for these citizens who are about to embark on this journey of a lifetime. That is why, here at Buy N Large, we have automated our starliner crew with over a thousand different types of specialized robots, ready to accommodate to every passenger's needs. We care about you, so it is all but expected of us to give you our very best; we will give you workers who will never let you bake under the UV lamps, never let a kitchen accident delay your mealtime, and best of all...never go against a superior's orders. This is their job, their directive...without you, they are nothing. So welcome your crew with open arms, and guarantee yourselves a pleasant stay with BnL's best. _

Shelby Forthright, Buy N Large Global CEO

Axiom Send-off Speech (the Robot Appraisal)

June 28th, 2101

_You know the way that things go...when what you fight for starts to fall..._

And so began the voyage of the famed "jewel-in-the-crown" of the BnL Delta fleet: the Axiom. For 5 years, any and all inhabitants of Earth pay a small price to be pampered while specialized cleanup robots pack and put away the heaps of trash that they had so carelessly left behind. It seemed like a pretty good deal to these ignorant humans, and along with the Axiom several other starliners were soon lifted into orbit for their own 5-year-cruises: The Vulcan, The Sanctus, The Postulate. All fleets from Alpha to Echo carted off a grand total of 3 million dumb, happy people who were completely unaware of the deteriorating state that the planet below was in. After all, it wasn't their problem. They were simply here to enjoy a well-deserved vacation, and they would be back home when half a decade had passed.

However, those 5 years went by quickly.

The humans who had escaped in the starliners were the lucky ones. Those who had decided to stay on Earth and wait out the growing calamity suffered a terrible fate in the end. Many died from carbon monoxide poisoning and suffocation from various other gases that had accumulated from vehicle and incinerator smoke over the centuries. Others died in miniature wars that were fought over what was left of the basic necessities of life, or seared by the intense UV rays bombarding Earth through multiple ozone holes. Shelby had made a grave mistake, and it was in these last few days of humanity that he broadcasted a frantic message to all starliner autopilots...a message that contained the order known to day as Code A-113. Without the passengers or the captain's knowledge, each BnL starliner was overtaken by the autopilots themselves, thus beginning a new era of permanent residence in space.

100 years passed, and life on the Axiom was still sweet as ever. Despite the fact that the ships had been in orbit for over a century, it didn't seem to be a problem for the former citizens of Earth. The main focus at that moment was the development of a new security robot; a robot that could tap into the minds and memories of others and-for the first time-empathize with humans. As the passengers awaited this breakthrough technology, the ships' staff began activating their EVE probes, ready to begin the second phase of Shelby's cleanup plan that had been canceled so long ago.

_And in that fuzzy picture...the writing stands out on the wall...so clearly on the wall..._

Another century passed, and the first of many small disturbances were recorded on all the ships as the passengers seemed to finally become somewhat aware of their situation. However, anything that got too out of hand was quickly subdued by the new force of long-awaited security robots; the Citizen's Order and Defense Interrogators. The EVE program also continued without a hitch, with rotations of pods being sent out annually to each of the six previously inhabited colonies: Mars, Luna, Europa, Titan, Creed; and of course, Earth.

_Send out the signal...deep and loud..._

200 years later, things in space and Earth began to worsen. The Wall-Es, BnL's dedicated cleanup crew, were finally starting to shut down from the sheer size of their workload; and without humans or specialized robots to repair them, the 3-foot, track-shoed garbage robots' numbers started to dwindle, leaving the mounds of human trash hardly disturbed. The final straw had broken the camel's back, and now it was assured the vision of Shelby Forthright's "new again" Earth would never happen. The human's former home became a dusty, windy wasteland, a toxic sphere void of any sign of life.

Conditions on the starliners weren't much better. The Sanctus had been intercepted by an alien race and the Postulate caught in a supernova, causing the already small population of surviving humans to decline. The Vulcan was obliterated when a group of mutineers unwittingly piloted the ship into a black hole, and the Axiom had also fallen to an uprising that caused the captivity of every person aboard, until the ship's autopilot finally fought back and freed the humans from their bondage. The peace was short-lasting, and soon after another 2-year war raged, this time among the robots themselves.

_Turn up the signal, wipe out the noise..._

200 years since, and the Axiom was finally released from its space exile. Due to the heroic acts of a stowaway Wall-E Unit and EVE Probe 1 of the Delta pod, the Axiom touched down in its home port in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on June 28th, 2801...exactly 700 years since its send-off. The 60,000 humans aboard the ship at the time were the only known survivors of the ultimate display of ignorance, the largest unintentional holocaust to ever be recorded in history. It was not going to be an easy recovery, but by no means was it impossible. And even today, 7 years later...the passengers of the Axiom live on...

_Turn up the signal, wipe out the noise..._

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**Please leave all reviews at the exit. There will be more to come!**


	2. Seven Years Later

**And so another installment of Memories is completed! Thank you all for reading and reviewing!**

**NOTE: WENDI, as you all very well know, is not mine. She belongs to gothicorca1895. ****

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**Part I: Echoes of the Past**

**Chapter I: Seven Years Later**

For the former passengers of the BnL executive starliner, they day had started normally enough.

The dawn came, pink as always, over the twisted metal tops of the ruined city beyond the landing site, bathing ring after ring of sprouting vegetation in beams of gold and fuchsia light as the sun struggled to ascend the still-clouded skies of the wounded planet. The wind from the nightly sandstorms had quieted, and the first-awakened humans could pull the emergency pins keeping their doors shut and walk out for the first time into their fresh, dew-covered ground, bathing their bare feet in the damp, chilly earth. For a people who had never seen the surface of the land they hailed from, this was a beautiful sight...but not one they could enjoy for long.

Within a few hours of the daybreak the work began. Every human had some part of the "green rings" to tend to, as was expected of them by the Captain and starliner officials, in order to keep the recolonization of Earth constantly going forward. These tiny sprouts were the only hope the planet had, the only way the humans could continue to live here and never have to set foot in space again. Throughout the day they would take shifts pruning, watering, planting, inspecting, replanting, sampling, and irrigating the vast acres of foliage; when they were not farming they were making trips to the city ruins, salvaging what they could use to keep the colony itself from collapsing. Surprisingly, the Ultra Stores that had been built over 700 years ago still held up the old Buy N Large tag-line to this very day: they did indeed have all the humans needed, and so much more.

Things inside the Axiom itself had not settled either, despite the ship's obsolescence. True, the humans did not need the resources provided by the automated crew; they did not need most of the robots who had served them for centuries anymore. However, the ship remained in operation, and it still stood regally in the center of the human colony, on it's home port. Today, it serves as a museum and resort, providing exhibits about the past and history of the ship, the history of Buy N Large, and (to most) as a lasting reminder that what had happened 700 years in the past must never be repeated.

On most days, the Axiom was packed with visitors. Children ran amok through the crowds as their parents chased clumsily after them, still wobbly on their weakened, flabby legs. Eager treble voices drilled deeper, mature ones about the many exhibits on display, followed by the sighs of both: the children glad their own life isn't nearly as sedentary, and from the adults, who only wished they hadn't been so pitiful. On the outer fringes of the crowd, tall, white SECUR-Ts kept the activity levels down to a safe level and made sure the traffic kept moving in order to lessen the damage caused by so many people in such a limited area.

"Mama, Papa! Over here!"

A young, seven-year-old child darts from a mass of idle adults, making a beeline for a particular exhibit roped off in the middle of the floor. It doesn't seem like much more than a glass case, standing freely next to the diving board of one of the Lido Deck's main pools, but upon closer inspection the boy managed to make out a mess of shattered glass and metal, strewn in random places all over the floor of the case. Screwing his freckled face up, he leaned a little over the ropes just as his parents, a large man with short, blonde hair and a woman with a red ponytail sticking up from the back of her head approached from behind, panting with the effort of chasing after their hyperactive child.

"Don't lean so far over the bastions, Jeremy," the woman chided gently, grabbing the back of his jumpsuit to put some distance between the display and the boy's eager face. "You're only going to excite those stiff old Stewards milling about here."

"What's this a display of, Mama?" Jeremy's brow furrowed a bit as he looked to his parents. "It kinda looks...broken."

"It's the ship's first mate," the man answered, laying a hand across the boy's backside. "They called him GO-4. He was the right-hand guy...or bot, I guess...for the Captain himself, and was usually the first to hear about anything that went on in the decks below."

"But then...why is he broken?"

The blonde man sighed, rubbing his fleshy chin. "When the autopilot rebelled...GO-4 tried to help him. He was knocked out of the bridge window when Captain McCrea tried to silence him." He cast his blue eyes down at the twisted heap. "Good riddance, too..."

"John, don't say that!"

The woman leaned to scold her husband, when suddenly, the crowd parted and grew silent, and the family turned to see what all the commotion was about.

"It's them!"

"Why, they've never come so early...I wonder what the matter is..."

"Clear the way, you idiot! Can't you see they're trying to get through?"

As the last few people moved to the side, John, Jeremy, and Mary finally caught sight of "them". Moving slowly through the mid-morning crowd in the Axiom's Lido Deck were none other than Wall-E and EVE themselves, the praised saviors of the human race and the ones who had helped the Captain found a successful human colony amidst all of the destruction. Wedged between them was a smaller, green-eyed robot who hovered like EVE, yet was gold in color and almost blocky enough to qualify as a sort of refined Wall-E unit; staring worriedly up at EVE as the white probe continued on her way and Wall-E trundled faithfully beside her.

Despite the cheerful atmosphere of the humans pressing in on her from all sides, EVE kept her gaze downward and stern, refusing to look even Wall-E or her daughter in the face as she continued across the floor of the Axiom's main area. As much as she would have normally wanted to take part in the merriment (as she usually did when she came to the ship...as a human had nodded earlier that she and Wall-E were not strangers here), this time the white probe had a purpose in mind...a directive, dare she call it; though a temporary one.

She had to get to the bridge.

Things had not gone well in the night for EVE; in fact, the things that she had experienced last night at the height of the moon still troubled her even as she reviewed them in her database now. During her dormant mode, a sudden, strong memory had chosen to rise up from her repression and startle her awake, and ever since that had happened she had been turning the concept over and over again in her mind, trying to make sense of why something like this would happen...and why at such an odd hour. The harsh look she had set her luminous blue eyes into was merely a front to keep her real fear from showing through; she was at her most vulnerable at the moment and the last thing the probe wanted was human pity. She came for answers, not sentiment, and as the crowd finally thinned and halted right at the entrance to the bridge, EVE finally stopped and turned to her faithful companions.

"Wall-E."

The squat trash compactor cocked his goggles up towards EVE's LED screen, the bars above his lenses springing up at the sound of her voice. He whistled in response, though her look remained unchanged and she pointed at his chest, then at the bot clinging to his arm.

"WENDI."

Wall-E nodded in comprehension, laying a dirt-caked shovel across his daughter's backside as EVE finally pointed to the ground before turning to the glass double-doors of the bridge. The gold bot, WENDI, whimpered and called out, but EVE simply turned and pointed to the ground again, keeping her stern gaze. Wall-E gurgled his concern, and tightened his grip on the girl, watching as the doors slid shut behind EVE and the humans began to press in on him.

"What's wrong, Wall-E?"

"She's not letting you go in?"

"Well, of course not. She's Axiom-class, he's not. Simple hierarchy."

"They're robots, not wolves. She just doesn't want him to come along. Don't you think she has the concept of privacy?"

"Don't worry, WENDI...your mama will be back."

Wall-E nodded, pulling WENDI close to him as the crowd grew tighter around him. He moaned in protest...ever since his accident with the ship's holodetector, Wall-E had never been comfortable with tight spaces. The humans should realize that, he mused, but all he could do at the moment was hunker down and hope that eventually...

"Enough."

Suddenly, the crowd gasped and quieted, the area around Wall-E suddenly being bathed in a dim, eerie red light as a slight, pneumonic hiss emanated from behind. WENDI's emerald eyes grew wide as the red light grew brighter, this hissing closer, and the humans finally spreading outward from their claustrophobic formation.

For hovering only a few feet above the trash-compactor's head, a large, black-and-white robot had descended from a track in the ceiling, his inner workings twitching slightly behind a visage that looked strikingly similar to that of a ship's wheel.

AUTO had arrived.


	3. The Bridge

**Chapter II: The Bridge **

Once inside the lobby of the bridge, EVE approached the switchboard controlled by the captain's typist robot, TYP-E, beeping out the robotic code language that permitted access to the bridge lift, and in turn to the Captain's private quarters, where even to this day he resides, able to keep watch over the entirety of the ship that used to be under his full command.

Upon her voice being heard, TYP-E's eye shifted up to look at her, and one of his typing styluses waved an emphatic hello, despite the look on EVE's face warning him to forgo the pleasantries. After that, he shifted the offending stylus back down onto the elevator command key, and the lift whizzed open behind them, EVE gliding past and sparing not another beep or blip in the one-eyed bot's direction.

As the lift began its ascent, EVE finally managed to drum up enough willpower to retrieve the offending memory from her database, reviewing it one last time before going to the captain:

_The ship was tilting, and all around her, the Axiom passengers tumbled helplessly down the slope, one by one. The plant that Wall-E and herself had fought so hard to keep alive disappeared within the mass of flabby people, and EVE's attempts at looking for it were made harder and harder by the minute as more people wedged themselves in her field of vision, obscuring the dirty brown boot within a sea of writhing red. _

"_Look out!" _

_ Suddenly, there was a terrible screeching noise as the tram that carted people to different areas of the ship jumped its track and barreled through the holo-barriers that served as a back-up safety precaution, rolling down the slope of the listing starliner and knocking aside abandoned hover chairs, as it headed straight for the mass of people that had congregated against the far wall of the lido deck. A collective scream began to rise from the humans, and as EVE forced herself away from her task, she darted for the tram, bracing her hands against it and slowing it down just enough so that it stopped inches from the crowd, held only by her strength and the two pillars it had wedged itself between. _

_The video screen above them flickered, and EVE realized with horror that AUTO was planning to short-circuit the holodetector control, preventing even the Captain from ever opening it again. _

_And Wall-E was still over there, stuck between the edge of the deck and the slowly descending lid of the one thing that would take them back to Earth, the one chance EVE had to fix him. _

_She was stuck. She couldn't get over there to help him, because if she let go of the tram, everyone would die. And as the white probe watched , the lid of the holodetector began to slowly press down on Wall-E's battered body, defying the strong, pneumatic shovels that made up his arms desperately trying to hold the machine open, his oily treads sliding further under the deck the harder he tried. _

_And then they slipped altogether, and the holodetector smashed Wall-E beneath its weight with a sickening crunch._

"_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" _

And that's where the memory ended. The ironic thing was, she had something just like this in her database, but it was longer and had a timestamp of a date seven years in the past. This one was essentially a repeat, and her memory chip described it as such, but the spontaneous occurrence of it, and the fact that it had occurred during a nightly dormant phase, was what puzzled and frightened EVE. This had never happened before, and she wouldn't be coming to the Captain if she could have explained it herself.

The lift slowed to a stop, and the doors hissed open to reveal the bridge of the Axiom, where Captain Bernie McCrea was already standing at the illuminated control panels, running routine morning diagnostics on the ship's systems. He glanced over his shoulder, doing a double take when he spotted EVE, before turning around to face her fully. The probe gave her superior a crisp salute, and the Captain returned it, leaning back on the controls as he addressed her.

"Good morning, EVE. What brings you here?"

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Back on the lido deck, no one dared move an inch as the ship's former autopilot menaced the crowd around him, keeping the humans back from Wall-E and WENDI and giving the trash compactor enough time to recover from his slightly collapsed form, straightening enough so that he too could see why everyone around him had fled so suddenly. His own brows sprung up in response to AUTO's sudden appearance, and he reached over to pull his daughter closer to him…only to find that she wasn't there anymore.

Instead, she was latched onto the stem that supported AUTO, a bright eye-smile lighting up her face as she chittered greetings.

"Aw-tow here, yaaaaaaay! Aw-tow here! Good morning, Mr. Aw-tow!"

Only then did the autopilot move, his face-panel tilting upward in an attempt to look the young prototype in the eyescreen, but failing mostly due to his limited range of mobility.

"Your greetings have been welcomed, and are returned with equal enthusiasm. However, while it is appreciated, I must return to my regular duties, WENDI unit. If you please, disengage yourself from my axis."

The collective tension of the crowd evaporated after that as the gold prototype did as she was told; the people around them calming down once it became apparent that AUTO was not going to harm anyone. Even though he had been re-commissioned to serve as the chief head of security of the Axiom, everyone was still a little jumpy around the autopilot, what with the memory of him disobeying the Captain and nearly destroying their one chance to return home still fresh in many former passenger's minds.

"I shall remind the museum patrons that the Wall-E unit does not like to be crowded, and maintaining a safe distance is a must," AUTO continued, this time addressing the rest of the crowd. Heads nodded their understanding and a few others took a few additional steps back, giving the compactor and WENDI even more elbow space. "He is to be respected as are all other museum exhibits. Affirmative?"

A few "yes sirs" rose from the passengers, and as the crowd began to disperse, Wall-E turned his goggles toward the autopilot, nodding his thanks.

"Orders are to maintain the ship. While you are here, you are under my jurisdiction." AUTO responded flatly, a slight twitch in his spokes indicating what could translate to a shrug. "Now, I must continue my patrol. Stay alert, Wall-E unit."

And with that, AUTO glided away, becoming nothing more than a slight, red glow near the edges of the crowd.

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The memory cam image faded, leaving Captain McCrea speechless and EVE in no better state than she had been coming up to the bridge in the first place. It was never easy to watch that particular playback, to be reminded of the time she had almost lost the robot that now, she can't imagine existing without. The screen around them was soon illuminated with an automated request from EVE's hardware asking if the Captain wanted to see the video again, but EVE hastily pulled the adapter from the side of her head before McCrea even had a chance to read the prompt fully. Clearly, twice was enough for one day.

"And the watermark says that this happened last night," the Captain stated, and EVE nodded once before turning her eyes down towards the floor. It had scared Wall-E and WENDI to death when she'd jolted awake, screaming so loudly that the magnifying lens Wall-E used to watch his video tape at the end of the workday gained another crack in it, and Wall-E had booted awake so quickly next to her that he'd hit his head on the shelf above him, knocking over a few of his trinkets and in turn bringing their daughter out of dormance as well. EVE was not a bot who got frightened easily, so seeing her like this must have been very frightening indeed to the compactor who loved her so, and the prototype they watched over who was programmed in the likeness of a three-year-old human child.

However, despite EVE's attitude, the Captain suddenly began laughing. EVE was at first taken aback, but her surprised look soon grew indignant. "What?" she asked, though she couldn't help the snap in her voice. It was a taxing chore to have to watch that replay all over again, and the Captain was making a mockery of her, or so she thought.

"EVE…I apologize," The Captain managed to choke out through his laughter, "But here I was, expecting something major, to the tune of 'All the plants are dying and it seems we're going to have to take off in this blasted ship again.' But…this is something that I can understand you'd be worried about of course; but really, this isn't a big deal at all!"

EVE's expression turned to one of curiosity, and she let out a few confused hums, asking McCrea to elaborate.

"EVE…it was just a dream!" The Captain exclaimed, his pudgy hands shooting skyward for emphasis. "It happens sometimes, especially with sentient robots like you. The idea is, the more sentience you gain, the more like a human you are...and that's why Mr. Forthright gave us repair wards on our ships…he knew with the level of artificial intelligence many of the Axiom's crews possessed, there was bound to be a learning curve on how many robots would eventually begin to act like people as the five years went by. He wanted robots to stay on track, focused on their directives. And whose physical and mental states were in question, they would be immediately sent away for diagnosis."

EVE shook her head, not fully comprehending the situation, and Captain McCrea's arms fell as he cleared his throat, hoping to explain the concept to her in terms she would understand.

"Dreams are a human thing, EVE. Hundreds of years ago, at the dawn of AI, the idea of a computer thinking like a human was a novel idea. Many of the early successful robots run by learning intelligence programming were some of the most lifelike ones out there, and they included the ability to make decisions not based upon algorithms, and yes, they had dreams.

"But these robots were imperfect, just like people are. Eventually, some of them would decide to participate in unscrupulous behavior, and left and right, robots began to drop from their jobs and do things that officially classified them as criminals. They lied. They stole. They slacked off on their work. They turned generally violent. So when BnL finally got their hands on the technology, they decided to keep everything out of the code that would allow them to arbitrarily turn rogue, and programming into them the directives that, as computers, they were compelled to follow. Because it is still based heavily on an AI that operates while learning to perform certain functions through a learning process, some of that is essentially destined to come back.

"As you gained your sentience back a long time ago, it was only a matter of time before you started to have dreams again too," the Captain concluded, clapping his hands together. "Well done!"

But EVE was not happy with this answer. She did not want to be a criminal, and the way Captain McCrea had explained it to her, the more frightened she became at the process. The Captain understood this, and he placed a hand on her backside in an effort to comfort her.

"…If you're absolutely positive you don't want to do this again, I would be happy to send you to the repair ward for the day," he responded quietly, causing EVE to shoot him a look. "It's worth a shot, but I can't guarantee that it's something that you would want to do, okay? In order to write out that particular piece of coding, we'd have to shuffle through everything that makes you…well, you. That includes Wall-E and WENDI. You could be right back at square one after that, and there would be nothing we could do about it."

EVE nodded her affirmation, and with that final word, she turned back and punched the button that allowed her back into the lift, descending back toward the Axiom floor.


	4. Confrontation in the Corridor

**Chapter III: Confrontation in the Corridor**

Wall-E and WENDI were idling in front of a display of an old hoverchair when EVE rejoined them, surrounded by a straggle of human children listening to an old teaching robot drone on about their uses, how the anti-gravity in their bases worked, and how the Axiom had adapted over the centuries as more and more people began to use them, necessitating the need to have a sort of ship-wide track system (as the service robots had with the ship's initial construction), as well as entertainment features so that the passengers wouldn't have had to get up to enjoy themselves. This was all terribly boring to EVE, but she waited anyway as her lover and her daughter listened with wide optics, and surveyed the SECUR-Ts standing rigid at their assigned posts now that the morning crowd was beginning to thicken.

The captain had said that dreams were a sign of sentience. He'd also said that sentient robots in the past acted like people-imperfect and sometimes dangerous people-without directives to guide them. And EVE knew there was some credibility to what he was saying; while she hadn't been around the _entire _time the Axiom had been in orbit, she had been around long enough to recall some memories of robots that still ran with highly sensitive learning AI. They were, at best, considered works in progress even for their time; with EVE herself being on the high end of the spectrum: her specific job class was one of the first of the modern Axiom service droids to successfully receive what the few human researchers on the ship called "directive-centered learning artificial intelligence", or "DCLAI"…then only tested in the ship's autopilot system. It had taken a long time to develop the technology needed for DCLAI programming because of Buy N Large's focus first on launching the rest of the starliners, then on cleaning up the calamity on Earth and other extrasolar colonies, but once it held it was standard. The only robot in the colony that didn't have it was Wall-E, but his own AI (despite being very primitive as it was made in 2101, the eve of the human exodus on Earth) had learned on its own over 700 years of existence; and at least he still understood that he had a job to do.

Granted, it was easier now with the colony's help, but it was still a job nonetheless.

Finally, the teaching bot finished her speech and began to glide away, and as the children followed in her wake, Wall-E and WENDI turned to find EVE parked behind them, lost in her thoughts until WENDI greeted her mother with such an enthused hug that their bodies let out a clang when they hit together, stunning WENDI and working out a small chuckle from EVE. Wall-E's expression became relieved when he saw that EVE seemed to be at least a little better than when she'd first come in, but her expression told that there was something new niggling at the back of her mind, and it bothered him. He wanted to ask what it was, but he didn't speak the ship's code language, and both his and EVE's human speak was limited. So, he'd have to suffer in silence for the time being.

WENDI, however, did speak human much better human than her parents, albeit with the grammar and quirks of a young child, and she was using it now as she tugged at EVE's condensed fin, trying to get her to come with her away from the main area of the ship and down one of the service corridors, where her friend, M-O the cleaning robot, was probably fervently scrubbing at one speck of dust or another.

"Mama! I go sees Mo-Mo, mama?"

Of course she'd want to go see him. They go to see him nearly every time they visit the Axiom, just because he happens to often be in the lower-deck corridors when Wall-E makes his occasional trips to the Repair Ward to be poked and prodded by Dr. Murdoc, the Axiom's current (and only) human robotics expert. She had an interest in old technology (and an even more special interest in how Wall-E's AI developed to accommodate his survival over 700 years), and knowing that he'd had to have major repair work done on him, offered to see him periodically to be sure all of his systems were functioning as they should. And, being as EVE didn't have to do her scheduled fly-over of the green rings until later today and Wall-E's work crew was taking the day off, what harm would a few more hours on the Axiom do?

Besides, if they swung by the repair ward, maybe EVE could get some counseling from Murdoc herself about the whole "shuffling through her mind to erase her ability to have dreams" bit Captain McCrea had suggested. Even if it weren't for the fact that EVE didn't like being compared to imperfect human beings…she didn't want to have to go through another dream like the one she had last night. It was bad enough having to actually see Wall-E very nearly die.

But she also couldn't imagine the possibility of not remembering who her family was either.

"Yes," EVE finally replied to WENDI's incessant badgering, and as her fin split at the ends into four-fingered hands to interlock with her daughter's, the prototype let out a happy cry, and Wall-E's brows sprung up as he used a combination of whistling and waving both of his shovels in a gesture that conveyed "keep it down" to keep his daughter from alerting the SECUR-Ts and getting them escorted from the area. WENDI nodded, but didn't quiet down too much until she and her mother were on their way, Wall-E always rolling along a couple paces behind them.

* * *

No matter how thick and noisy the crowds got, and no matter the fact that his one optic limited what he could see, AUTO never had any trouble with his job heading security on the Axiom. Despite what his position had been in the ship's final days in space and despite what the humans thought of him, the former Axiom autopilot still had all the proper clearance to command every robot on the ship; a clearance that he used without hesitation and liberally as the situation called for it. Crowd control was simply a game of strategy to him after all: he had a set number of SECUR-Ts to work with, and he had to make sure that most of them were within the densest population of humans. Thanks to his improved ship-wide track system, including a hover port that carried him under the "sky" of the lido deck, this was entirely doable, as he now had an unobstructed view of who needed to be where, as well as any mishaps that he could call on a team of cleanup bots to remedy.

This was better than the alternative, sitting dormant and useless back on his home port in the bridge; or worse, active and confined to the bridge, powerless to do anything but be constantly reminded of his failed directive. And yes, he still considered the return of the Axiom to Earth to be a failure, but now that they were here, what was AUTO to do? By the time he was reactivated the Captain had already powered down the ship's reactor core enough so that the only thing that it could possibly run was the ship's power circuit, and then he'd taken away AUTO's ability to command it back on.

So, they'd come to an agreement. As long as the Captain kept the ship running and able to take off in case re-colonization failed (and even after 7 years AUTO was still convinced enough by Mr. Forthright's final order that he felt it would eventually), AUTO would help maintain it, and since the Axiom eventually became nothing more than a museum and its living quarters now prime resort space to work-weary former passengers, that meant policing the crowds and making sure the repair bots kept the starliner from falling apart.

Speaking of which, AUTO noted that he had to head into the corridors to make sure they were doing just that.

Well, he was satisfied with his current SECUR-T placement at the moment, so the wheel-shaped robot sent out the wireless command for all stewards to stand ground, then slid along his track and into the A-Deck, which was the beginning of the service corridors and the location of one of the Axiom's many repair wards…with this one being where the ship's roboticist took up residence due to the repair arms being…nonfunctional.

He had not even gone a few feet away from the repair ward entrance when AUTO heard clicking behind him, causing him to stop on his track.

"Unauthorized robot spotted. Please state your designation and directive."

AUTO's light dimmed and a low rumbling sound from his processor indicated annoyance, and as he swiveled around to look at his assailant, he was not surprised at all to be face-to-eye with a six-foot, humanoid robot, standing at rapt attention with the laser sights on his shoulders pointing directly at the autopilot's axis.

"The jest becomes even less amusing the more it is used, Interrogator Unit Two. Please remove your sights from me."

The android did not budge; instead he replied: "Invalid answer received. Please state your designation and directive."

"Stand down," AUTO commanded flatly, and finally, he complied, a low chuckle emanating from his own voice box.

"You never had a sense of humor anyway," the android muttered, shrugging his shoulders as the shoulder cannons retreated back into his paneling. "It really makes listening to you boring, actually. And the Doctor believes so too."

"The doctor can believe what she pleases, Interrogator Unit Two. You, however, must refrain from aiming at me every time I patrol this corridor."

The police robot's red eyes narrowed for a moment, but before he had a chance to reply, a squat, brown-haired human, still pudgy from inactivity like the rest of the former passengers, waddled out of the broken repair ward and appeared at the other's side, staring up into his square face with furrowed brows.

"CODI, I thought you told me you were going to play nice with others," Dr. Murdoc shook her head, making a "tsk-tsk" noise as she reached up to place a hand on the robot's shoulder. "Come on, AUTO's just doing his job, just like you. Can't you leave him to do it in peace?"

"No," CODI responded, laughing that low, rumbling chuckle of his again as AUTO made another noise of annoyance. "Jesting aside, passengers believe he is a threat and I shall continue to treat him with caution, commanding unit or not," the Interrogator said in a more serious tone, forcing an eye-roll from the doctor.

"CODI, it's great that you're following your directive and putting the passenger's best interests in mind. But remember what I said about AUTO following his directive as well? And how he's modified his duties for the better of everyone now?"

While he couldn't properly express it, AUTO was indeed comforted by the fact that Dr. Ginger Murdoc seemed to be the only person left on the Axiom that understood why he had acted the way he did during his "rebellion" in space…but only because she was the only one of the passengers besides McCrea (who had been too zealous about going home to care at the time, hence his declaring AUTO mutinous) who had even a vague understanding of how directives issued by the highest authority available (in this case, it was the Global CEO of Buy N Large) could not and would not be broken by the robot under that particular order.

"Yes, yes, of course I know," CODI replied, his tone changing to one of almost idle boredom. One of his arms, fitted at the wrist with a series of needle-like protrusions built for plugging into security cameras and robot hard-drives, moved so that it was in front of his narrow eye-screen, and he inspected them as a human would inspect their nails. AUTO tried to ignore the insolence as the doctor continued.

"Besides, CODI, you're not properly equipped to detain someone anymore, remember?" The doctor motioned to his other arm, this one being bare of electrically invasive devices, but burnt and damaged by what appeared to be a plasma blast. It sparked and hung stiffly at his side, and as CODI's optics followed Murdoc's eyes, and AUTO felt a twinge of smugness as it was the police robot's turn to make a sound of annoyance.

"My guns still work," he argued weakly back.

"But you're not allowed to fire them in here," Murdoc retorted. "That's how the repair arms in this ward were fried. Granted, your miniature cannons don't have the power of an EVE probe's, but you can still cause a lot of damage. Shooting is out of the question."

"Do not worry, Interrogator Unit Two," AUTO cut in, nodding to Dr. Murdoc. "You are doing a fine job of guarding the defunct ward. The doctor has also put in many good words about your assistance as well. Do not spoil your reputation by being a simpleton."

"Of course," CODI finally conceded, gliding back on his rollerball boots. "Aye, autopilot, I will stand down."

"Good."

And with that, AUTO turned on his axis and left the pair standing there, continuing on his path to check on the service robots.


End file.
